If you are a busy 21st century person, with lots of tasks, appointments and events, a decent calendar software package is something without which you simply should not try to cope. It will change your life forever, and make things so much easier for you that you soon won't be able to imagine living without it. What do you need from such a package?
Unless you are a computer geek who like to spend hours figuring out how things work, one of your primary concerns should be ease of use. If you need a PhD to figure out how to enter tomorrow's meeting or your anniversary date, you will soon grow tired of it and not enjoy using it. Luckily many of the better packages have a creation wizard so it's really easy to enter new information using an intuitive step-by-step approach.
Another feature that comes in very handy is the ability to export and import data to and from another calendar package. You will only realize the importance of this if you have been using your current package for six months and you then find something better. If you can't export your data, it means you will painstakingly have to enter everything into the new package again.
The ability to view your calendar on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis is also very important. Nothing is more frustrating than a calendar offering only daily views, so you have to click through day after day before you can get to your appointments for next month. You want to be able to see at a glance what your next month looks like and then be able to drill down to daily and even hourly level.
A feature that you will use a lot is that of being able to print your calendar. You don't want to have to carry your laptop with you all the time to be able to see your appointments. It makes much more sense to print your daily schedule when you start working in the morning so you have it available all the time.
If you are the type of person that can never remember your friends' birthdays, a printable birthday calendar is the ideal solution for you. You can easily add a new friend later (or alas remove on that is no longer with us), print the calendar again and thereby make sure you never forget a birthday.
Another important feature is email and/or cell phone integration. You should be able to set up reminders of all important meetings, including recurring meetings, and the system should be able to email or SMS you with a reminder about that meeting before the time.
There are numerous calendar software packages available for download on the Internet. Some surprisingly good ones can be downloaded for free, but the top ones will probably cost you a few dollars - well worth the investment if they can do exactly what you need them to do!
Unless you are a computer geek who like to spend hours figuring out how things work, one of your primary concerns should be ease of use. If you need a PhD to figure out how to enter tomorrow's meeting or your anniversary date, you will soon grow tired of it and not enjoy using it. Luckily many of the better packages have a creation wizard so it's really easy to enter new information using an intuitive step-by-step approach.
Another feature that comes in very handy is the ability to export and import data to and from another calendar package. You will only realize the importance of this if you have been using your current package for six months and you then find something better. If you can't export your data, it means you will painstakingly have to enter everything into the new package again.
The ability to view your calendar on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis is also very important. Nothing is more frustrating than a calendar offering only daily views, so you have to click through day after day before you can get to your appointments for next month. You want to be able to see at a glance what your next month looks like and then be able to drill down to daily and even hourly level.
A feature that you will use a lot is that of being able to print your calendar. You don't want to have to carry your laptop with you all the time to be able to see your appointments. It makes much more sense to print your daily schedule when you start working in the morning so you have it available all the time.
If you are the type of person that can never remember your friends' birthdays, a printable birthday calendar is the ideal solution for you. You can easily add a new friend later (or alas remove on that is no longer with us), print the calendar again and thereby make sure you never forget a birthday.
Another important feature is email and/or cell phone integration. You should be able to set up reminders of all important meetings, including recurring meetings, and the system should be able to email or SMS you with a reminder about that meeting before the time.
There are numerous calendar software packages available for download on the Internet. Some surprisingly good ones can be downloaded for free, but the top ones will probably cost you a few dollars - well worth the investment if they can do exactly what you need them to do!
About the Author:
There are many choices for calendar software available to those who need help keeping track of their social or business obligations. When selecting freeware calendar software, it helps to know which features are important for you.
